A probe into the intertwining concepts of Transnationalism and the Global Care Chain Leanne Zarroug -3rd Year Sociology

Abstract:

This essay looks upon the concept of transnationalism via the lens of migration. A range of sociologist’s ideas were used for the conception of this paper but key focus must be given to Basch, Schiller, and Blanc (1994) who’s definition of transnationalism, cited by Alaazi et al (2018) is key for the conception of this paper. The results of this paper focus on the impacts of children who parent’s participate the GCC. This differs from sons to daughters, with overall, daughter’s experiences being more negatively impacted when a parent choses to migrate and participate inadvertently in a transnational identity. This spilled into discussion of the identity of children and the concept of diaspora which influences the transnational identity. To extend research, more research on women who participate in the the Global Care Chain could be undertaken. The differences transnationalism provided to their viewpoints could be expanded outward on assessment on femininity.

The concepts of transnationalism and the global care chain are pushed more and more to the forefront as the world becomes more globalised. As they are both so prevalent, it’s key to outline how both the global care chain and transnationalism impact individuals participating and the ones who are left behind.

Transnationalism can be defined as which “immigrants force and sustain multi-stranded social, economic and political relations that link together their societies or origin and settlement, and through which they created transnational social fields that cross national borders” (Basch, Schiller, and Blanc 1994 p. 6 ; Alaazi et al., 2018 p. 149). Participation in this migration usually stems from an urge to better their children’s standard of living (Cebotari, Mazzucato and Appiah, 2017).

Fudge (2012, p. 65) defines the Global Care Chain or GCC as “networks of transnational dimensions that are formed for the purpose of maintaining daily life; these networks are comprised of households that transfer caregiving tasks from one to another on the basis of power axes”.

It is also stated how foreign women’s interactions with labour abroad can be trapped within strictly ‘female’ occupations like domestic work, sex work and nursing. Domestic work will be the focus of this global care chain with the type of work these workers participate in ranging from cooking to cleaning to childcare. Davalos (2020) cites Hondagneu – Soteli and Avila (1997) who differentiates the feminization of domestic working into three different categories : Live in domestic work, where the female migrant lives full time with the family, Live out domestic work, where they are able to go home in the evenings and House Cleaning were in no care work is carried out.

The transferral of caregiving is significant as it represents the class difference inherent within the chain. It is usually women from disadvantaged racial and ethnic backgrounds providing this form of care to more empowered groups (Fudge, 2012). This is mirrored by male migrant workers within the domestic sphere. This leads Hoschild to provide the term “global heart transplant” (Nadasen, 2017) which means love is transferred from a Third world country to a First world one. This can result in negative social impacts on the workers who provide this transferral and impact their children as well (Salazar Parrenas 2003; Davalos, 2020).

The workers most likely to be transferring this love are mothers. The term ‘transnational motherhood’ has been adopted to outline how mothers, who live and work in first world countries continue to support and provide for their children back in the country of origin.

Unlike fathers, who will be discussed below, an interesting aspect of women interacting with the chain was the geographical movement. Hondagneu-Sotelo and Avila (1997 p. 532) describe this as a “gender-transforming odyssey”. Unlike men who experience the impacts and the social benefits of being the breadwinner (Davalos, 2020), women instead have negative, unique social shame and guilt from moving away from their communities, children and husbands to do work.

It is also stated that the work they leave to do is domestic work which is not understood as high skilled or important work. Fudge (2012) describes how developed nations are eager to attract highly skilled workers but fail to consider the importance of care work, so these workers are often dispersed back to their own countries after their work is done.

Both Davalos (2020) and Kilkey (2010), despite writing a decade apart from each other, outline the limitations within research on the GCC. This comes in the lack of exploration of masculinity or just the lack of regard for male migrant workers who move within the chain. Nadasen (2017) provides an explanation for this, remarking how scholars have previously characterised female dominated occupations just by the gendered feminine qualities rather than analysing if the tasks relate back to being care.

A key difference highlighted in the care performed by men and women is the space which it’s performed in. For example, migrant men are more likely to work in public areas when compared to women. This causes Davalos (2020) to make alterations to the three stages of domestic work portrayed by Hondagneu – Sotelo and Avila. From : Live In domestic work, Live Out domestic work and Housecleaning to Fully Private, Semi-Private and Public-Private. This spatial mobility means they were distanced from female spaces and allows men the access to a wider range of jobs. These include working in the garden, driving within the city and collecting children from school. A more varied number of jobs exist for men to do which allows them to amass a wider amount of skills. As they have a wider range of jobs to participate in, this means they are able to move beyond the domestic sphere of the labour market allowing them to send more money home (Datta et al. 2008; Davalos 2020) improving their position as the breadwinner within their families.

It can be noted that the GCC forms a “transnational space of masculinities” (McKay 2007, 630; Kilkey 2010). This arises via the tension of doing traditionally what is deemed women’s work. Ray (2000) is cited by Kiley (2010) stating that masculine domesticity interacts with masculine qualities like breadwinning and responsible fatherhood. This transnational masculine is also impacted by middle class masculinity via the concept of the ‘New Family Man’ with “new father time” suddenly emerging without a decrease in working hours. This has the ability to positively impact the middle class family but it can be noted that this free time is due to the withdrawal of domestic work from middle class men onto migrant men. The extraction of love from poorer countries to another is clear here.

This extraction isn’t exactly loveless for the children back in the country of origin though, Davalos (2020) highlights the importance of technology for allowing transnational fathers to improve existing relationships with their children. This allows for them to provide for them economically via sending money back as well as provide for them emotionally.

Directly linking with transnationalism, Kilkey (2010) refers to Sarti (2006) who argues that domestic services are experiencing  “remasculinization” with a high amount of representation of men within domestic services. This can be seen with some societies like Spain, making domestic work a legal route of entry for workers (Penninx, Spencer, and Van Hear 2008; Kilkey 2010) increasing the attractiveness of domestic work. Fudge (2012) however states that despite public policy being made to tackle migrant workers demands, it fails to look at the employment structure as a whole and only looks at individual choices. For example, Kilkey (2010) stresses that for societies that do not have domestic work as a legal entry, domestic work has the ability for individuals to work privately in a home rather than freely in an open, state surveilled workplace. It can exist as a survival tactic (Pfau – Effinger 2009; Kilkey 2010). In spite of it being viewed as this survival strategy for some, Fudge (2012) states that the nature of this type of migrant labour being so heavily linked to a private employer means that these policies made by the International Labour Organization like allowing migrant workers to keep their identity documents are more symbolic than anything.

It can be noted that the ‘otherness’ comes to aid workers who may be working abroad. For example Ray (2000) states that “otherness permits both simultaneously and variously their de-masculinization, feminization, and infantilization.” (Kilkey 2010). This occurs specifically to men in the transnational domestic sphere. The foreignness of the men which taps into the feminization of them, allows them access into middle class spaces which men from the country of origin are not afforded access into. This otherness experienced while in a foreign country can also aid explanations on why new forms of masculinity arise.

When exploring the GCC, it’s key to explore the impacts of the children left behind while their parents work abroad. Nadasen (2017) does note that poor and working class women have had to rely on broader social links to help provide childcare. This is reflected in the family left looking after their children while migrants work. For example, Cenotari, Mazzucato and Appiah (2017) suggests that within the African context, as family life is characterised by social parenthood with a wide range of social links, that it is more likely a family friend would look after the children while their parents are abroad. This is also mirrored within a study looking at Latina mothers, it is suggested that the collectivist approach to the family rather than the individualist Anglo-American approach makes it more likely that a member of the family looks after the children (Griswold del Castillo 1984; Segura and Pierce 1993; Hondegneu -Sotelo and Avila, 1997).

This reliance on broader family links conflicted with some of the Latina’s mother’s personal viewpoints however. Many of them stressed the importance of a biological caregiver over someone else but accepted that in their position abroad, that relying on a paid caregiver or a cousin was the best they could accept (Hondagneu-Sotelo and Avila, 1997 p. 560). Transnational identity directly impacted and changed their viewpoints on mothering.

This is also reflected in masculinity. New forms of masculinity were also developed while at home. Davalos (2020) looked into how children’s ideals of gender were constructed while a mother was abroad. A child stated that “Maybe my mother was not present, but my father was both at the same time.” (p. 1714). This shows how the absence of one parental figure can impact children’s construction of gender with men actively taking on both roles. This is in direct opposition with the “New Family Man” who only leans more into his role as a father rather than adopting features of a mother.

Like the GCC, there exists a gendered aspect of the impacts on children. Despite all children having been reported feeling abandoned by their parents (Dreby, 2007;Mazzucato and Cebotari, 2016)  as well as experiencing a decline in mental healthy and less prosocial behaviour (Fan et al., 2010;Mazzucato and Cebotari, 2016), a focus has been shone onto daughters of transnational parents. For example in A Longitudinal Analysis of Well-Being of Ghanaian Children in Transnational Families (2017), the impacts of transnationalism had a range of impacts on daughters. It was stated that girls overall, experience more disadvantages when a parent migrates.

Girl’s health was reported to be negatively impacted regardless of which parent migrated, which was attributed to the distribution of chore doing being unequal in Ghanaian households (Cebotari, Mazzucato and Appiah, 2017). This means daughters take on more chores after a parent has migrated, especially picking up where one parent has left. This was also reflected in China (Gao et al. 2010; Cebotari, Mazzucato and Appiah, 2017) where daughters were more at risk in participating in unhealthy behaviours. This can show the chain nature of the GCC, not just between the Third and First world, but within the family structure, where responsibilities are passed onto a daughter to replace the responsibilities a mother would usually have.

It is not just which parent that migrates which makes an impact; Greater happiness has been seen when only the mother migrates (Cebotari; Mazzucato and Appiah, 2017), but also the caregiver which the children are left with. It was briefly discussed above that family links provided by transnational workers have to allow them to safely work in a foreign country. The women interviewed by Hondagneu- Sotelo and Avila (1997) expressed weariness in leaving their children under someone else’s care : “They worry that their children may not receive proper nourishment, schooling and educational support, and moral guidance”. (p. 560). This anxiety of who looks after their child does not have much of an effect on the child’s well-being (Mazzucato and Cebotari, 2016) rather the stability of who looked after them was more impactful.

Cebotari, Mazzuucato and Appiah (2017) discovered that children experience worse life satisfaction and school enjoyment when the change in caregiver occurs multiple times. The lack of stability can also be why it was discovered that children of divorced migrant parents are worse off overall in every aspect. The lack of a stable union or caregiver, can impact the amount of resources poured into the child, especially if the migrant parent has formed a new family abroad (Dreby, 2007;Cebotari, Mazzucato and Appiah, 2017).

However, it is noted by Davalos (2020), that within their study, the transnational fathers were keen to settle in the host countries and bring their children along with them.

Despite the willingness of some fathers to eventually bring their children along with them, Gutierrez (2020) looks at the impact first and second generation transnationalism has on individuals. The first generation with a transnational identity is said to socialise their children in line with the cultural norms of the society of origin rather than the new one (Byng 2017; Levitt 2009; Gutierrez 2020). This socialisation is key as without this maintenance through the passing down to their children, cultural identity can be lost and never materialised again (Al-Ali, Black & Koser, 2001; Alaazi et al., 2018). This puts in place the ability for the second generation to in turn, make an attachment of their own (Luthra et al. 2018; Gutierrez, 2020) which allows for the continuation of cultural identity.

This can link nicely with the concept of diaspora, which can be defined as “the scattering of something or someone over various locations.” (Johnson 2012 p.45). It is often characaterised with a sense of longing to go back to the country of origin as well. Transnationalism can be inherently diasporic, especially within second generations who face a difference due to culture and language proficiency (Byng 2017, Gutierrez, 2020).

How technology was key for fathers to interact with their children, this is the same for immigrants to retain linkages with the country of origin (Verovec, 2001; Alaazi et al., 2018). It allows for the maintenance of identity.

Looking at generations beyond the mother, father and children, grandmothers are also a key aspect of tranationalim due to them usually existing as that stable caregiver (Yarris, 2011). It disrupts their lives as the cultural expectation is that they would receive support from their daughters instead they are continuing to mother, being the extension of a mother over two generations. Despite cultural expectations, the mothering by grandmothers is a response to the care deficit that is carried on via the GCC.

The care deficit exists in response to the lack of individuals or the lack of care available in developed countries for society. The aforementioned new family man is unable to provide care via domestic services so a migrant worker is brought in to perform them. Middle-class women suffer the balancing of career ambitions and maintaining their families so migrant mothers are brought into help. The shifting of notion of care from a middle class family to a working class individual then to a (usually) female child can show the lack of support networks when regarding care.

The care deficit along with the devaluation of domestic work, leads to an empty hole. Why would someone want to take up domestic work which is devalued and unfunded? This lack of appeal to us is what allows for the exploitation of those who participate in the chain with low wages and long hours. Nadasen (2017) directly calls out capitalism for producing this unequal access to care for everyone and only providing a set of caring strategies available for some.

Overall, the impact of transnationalism and the global care chain are interlinked. They both have gendered dimensions which impact how individuals interact with them. These gendered aspects can help explain the care deficit when looking at the dev-valuation of typically female work.

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